Caleb Carter (born 1888), whose Indian name was Ip-nau-sau-lau-kaskt, attended Haskell Institute for three years before entering Carlisle in 1909. His student file indicates that he did not attend Carlisle continuously. After graduating in 1912 he moved to Kansas to become a farmer. (Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center; Littlefield and Parins, Biobibliography: Supplement, 187)
Come with me to spend Christmas with that famous Indian tribe which led Generals Miles and Howard a merry chase through the Rockies not so many years ago, covering a distance of over thirteen hundred miles, regardless of the numbers pitted against them.
We will find that the Nez Percé Reservation is in the northern part of Idaho on the Clearwater River, a tributary of the Columbia River, almost directly across the boundary line between Oregon and Washington, on the Idaho side.
Our invitation came several weeks beforehand, stating the place at which the Indians were to gather for the festivities, and fixing the date, several days before Christmas. No one is barred from the celebration, for the poor and the rich are alike welcome.
On the day appointed, we find all the invited guests assembled in camp which is not to break until the middle of January. The first event on the program is the delivering of an address of welcome by the chief in a big tent where all the guests are gathered.
When Christmas Day actually comes, there is a very great bustle throughout the encampment and all seem to be as busy as ants; some are helping to barbecue the beef, others are preparing the program for the afternoon’s entertainment, and still others are fixing their war bonnets, leggings, and other articles of apparel worn on such occasions.
At last dinner is announced and the “heap big eat” commences. It is no dog feast, you may be sure; but it is exactly what you would expect to find at some elaborate banquet among white people, with a few natural differences. For instance, here there are dried venison, dried salmon, and other dainties which only an old-time Indian has the secret of preparing.
After dinner is over and the tables cleared away from the big tent, the chief commands each person present to prepare for the annual dance—the “Tukyawa”—a dance which has been handed down among the Nez Percés from generation to generation. It may be said that this dance answers to our Memorial Day observance on May thirtieth. All the old costumes are brought out to be worn by the relatives of absent ones, for the dance is to be in commemoration of those whose places in the tribe have been filled by others. The dance starts with a special song—of very ancient origin—a song so sad that it brings tears to the eyes of all who are within hearing, for the Indians are a very sympathetic race and their dead are very dear to them. When this one song is ended, and the dancers have gone several times in a big circle around the tent, like soldiers marching in file, then all the sad part of the celebration is over.
Now the guests may do anything they choose to do, and they usually choose to dance. The dances are, for the most part, round dances, or the war dance, each of which is announced by the chief.
During a war dance, the attention of a stranger would naturally be fixed on the decorations of the dancers, and they would notice how curiously this one or that one has painted his body or his shield. These decorations all tell a story, and, should you ask an old-timer who has to his credit about sixteen or seventeen scalps, the meaning of the emblems painted on a certain shield, he would, perhaps, tell you that during the war with General Howard, or the Crows, or any other tribe, this particular buck scalped his enemy alive; or, that he came off victorious after being surrounded by his enemies. It is like reading shorthand at “Old Carlisle” to interpret these symbols.
During the war dance, if some dancer should lose some part of his ornament, a feather usually, the following performance would ensue:
First, the tune changes, the drum sounds like the roar of a cannon, war whoops arise, and the whole tumult gives the hearer the impression that a real Indian scrimmage is taking place. Now, everything but the singing ceases and the dancers dance in time with the music around the feather lying upon the ground. As soon as the drum starts up again, the dancers suddenly stop and seat themselves in a circle, until the discord ceases. This is kept up for some time.
Suddenly one brave steps to the center of the circle, where the feather is lying; and, as he approaches it, he performs certain maneuvers resembling those which actually took place at some critical moment in his career. Nearer and nearer he draws to the feather, while all, who are closing the circle in on him, watch him closely. At last, the brave strikes the feather with his tomahawk. Then the music stops, all reseat themselves, and the warrior tells of the brave deed which his movements have been suggesting, the record of which is painted on his person. Perhaps it is a tale of a miraculous escape from death; perhaps he tells how he saved some one from losing his scalp to the enemy; probably he shows a scar or two as a result of the encounter. When he has finished his story he returns the feather to the owner. Meanwhile, his relatives are piling money, blankets, shawls, and numerous other articles for him to distribute to his listeners, to show how grateful he is that on this Christmas Day he is still alive, when he might have fallen a victim to his dreaded foes.
During these war dances many things are given away. Visitors, if they happen to be of a different tribe, usually get the most of these. If a lady has asked you to dance with her during the round dance, she pays you, either with a blanket or a sum of money, and you must take the gift or she will feel herself insulted, for it is a time-honored custom of this tribe to make gifts in this manner—from a few cents in value to a span of horses or a wagon.
We have spent the day witnessing many curious customs, handed down from our ancestors; our visit is over and we return to our homes.26
Strange and improbable as this description seems, it is every word of it true, as the writer is of the tribe mentioned in the title of his paper and has always been familiar with the customs about to be described.
The men of the tribe who were set apart by their physical qualifications to train for runners, used to commence their training in the latter part of October, at which time they began to take early morning baths in cold mountain streams. These baths were kept up through the whole winter season until the spring weather made the water cooler.27
Next on the schedule to be followed by those in training are the warm baths, taken in a hole in the ground where the water is heated by hot rocks, mixed with cold baths described above. If the warm bath is not taken, the sweat bath is substituted, and is prepared as follows: first, a skeleton of a small hut is made from willow boughs; this is covered with twigs and dirt, a small opening being left in front for a door, over which blankets are hung. Near this door, a small round hole is dug and filled with red-hot stones. After all the trainers have had a plunge in the cold water they enter this little sweat house and close the door. Then one of the number pours warm water on the red-hot stones, causing the steam to rise and surround the occupants of the tightly-closed room.
After awhile the victims emerge and take another plunge into the cold water. This process they keep up until the stones are cold and useless for the manufacture of steam.
After a light dinner, consisting of merely a little soup, the same program is repeated; and this is done daily for at least three months of the year, sweat baths being indulged in in the early morning and late evening—usually after sunset.
The way in which a young buck’s endurance was tested was like this: An old warrior selects a tree with a limb affording a tempting opportunity to swing on it by one’s hands. When the night comes for the testing, the old buck calls the young brave to jump out from his hot bath-hole, to leap and catch the limb with both hands, and to cling to it until he is ordered to “let go.” If he drops unconscious before the signal is given, it is a sign that the training has not been sufficient, and he is ordered to return to his daily routine until such time as he can cling to the limb for the desired number of minutes. After this testing, the program for those in training is extended by the addition of short runs, every morning and evening, for a distance of five or six miles. As the youths begin to show endurance, this distance is gradually lengthened.
Then comes another testing: A small hill, so many paces high, is chosen, up which they are required to run, on jumping out of the hot bath. If the person tested does not reach the top and back again, he is considered not yet in proper condition. Sometimes the candidate runs halfway up the hill, then falls and rolls down the slope unconscious.
Such training gives to the Indian incredible strength, agility, and power of endurance. As an example, one needs only to cite Lawyer, who was killed near Cul de Sac, Idaho. Compared with his white brothers, he appeared to be about forty at the time of his death, but in reality he was past seventy years of age. It is said that at one time, before the Nez Percé war, he chased a black bear for over sixty miles, over mountains and across canyons. He might have succeeded in catching “Bruin,” but it grew too dark for the chase, so he calmly trotted back home again.
I wonder how the young Indian of today would like this sort of training?
Now, an Indian cannot even break through the ice, while skating, without endangering his life.28